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A day after smoke filled a PATCO train, forcing an evacuation, a PATCO official is answering questions regarding everything that happened during the incident. NBC10's Harry Hairston has the details. (Published Tuesday, Feb 11, 2014)

Updated at 8:49 PM EDT on Tuesday, Feb 11, 2014

A day after smoke forced the evacuation of a PATCO train in Center City, passengers who say they had to wait for over an hour to get out are demanding answers.

On Monday, a six-car train traveling from Philadelphia to New Jersey was stopped shortly after 5 p.m. after smoke started to fill two of the cars.

"Thank God we had our cell phones," said Andrew Ludewig, another passenger. "We actually found out what happened through NBC."

Aiello says the conductor then began to inform them of the situation.

Rush Hour Chaos On PATCO As Smoke Fills Cars

Passengers were evacuated from a PATCO train Monday night, after smoke fills the cars. PATCO says a short in a motor is to blame. NBC10's Lu Ann Cahn spoke with passengers. (Published Monday, Feb 10, 2014)

"The train conductor got on the speaker and said we are evacuating the train and need to move quickly but safely," she said. "That's pretty much the only information we had the entire time."

The passengers were slowly evacuated. They first removed two passengers who had medical issues. Passengers in the two cars where smoke was detected were then moved onto an eastbound train which departed from Franklin Square Station.

Not wanting to wait for the train, some passengers left and went into the station. The remaining passengers were eventually evacuated and no injuries were reported.

"It took about an hour of walking through each car in the dark before we finally got to the ladder and we climbed down off the train," Aiello said. "At that point, we were directed to walk through the tunnel where we were met by more firefighters and police officers with a ladder to climb up to the platform."

"They're most likely to short out if there's a snow storm and there's a freeze and a thaw because then you get little pieces of ice," he said.

Officials with the Federal Transit Administration, which oversees PATCO, confirm that it was the weather that shorted out the motors. They also say PATCO was not in violation of any FTA requirements during the incident.

As for the hour and half long wait before passengers were able to leave, Ireland says repairs on one of the tracks and a shortage of empty trains caused the delay.

"When you only have one track running across the Ben Franklin Bridge you can't move trains quickly," Ireland said. "It took three trains to pick up everybody."

PATCO officials also say they believe the public deserves better service and they're working to improve it.